Spinach smorgasbord
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I want to thank Jonathan Silk (comment here) for pushing Popeye to further heights and deeper depths in our understanding of his favorite vegetable. We're not "finiched" with spinach yet.
Now it's getting very interesting and confusing (Armenian is creeping in):
palak
English
Etymology
From Hindi पालक (pālak), from Sanskrit पालक्या (pālakyā).
Noun
palak (uncountable)
-
- (India, cooking) Spinach or similar greens (including Amaranthus species and Chenopodium album).
Turkish
Etymology
Borrowed from Armenian բալախ (balax), dialectal փալախ (pʻalax).
Noun
palak (definite accusative palağı, plural palaklar)
-
- (dialectal, Artvin) leaf
- (dialectal, Ahlat) a tender soft grass that grows in wet places
- (dialectal, Artvin) short grass that grows again after being mown
- (dialectal, Divriği) crop sown early that remains short and does not form ears
- (dialectal, Çemişgezek, Ağın, Şanlıurfa, Ankara) dry grass
- (dialectal, Ahlat) type of grass eaten by animals
- (dialectal, Ardanuç) time of crop to form ears
- (dialectal, Ovacık) dry grass
Related terms
References
-
- “palaḫ (II)”, in Türkiye'de halk ağzından derleme sözlüğü [Compilation Dictionary of Popular Speech in Turkey] (in Turkish), volume 9, Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu, 1977, page 3382a
- “palak (IV), (V)”, in Türkiye'de halk ağzından derleme sözlüğü [Compilation Dictionary of Popular Speech in Turkey] (in Turkish), volume 9, Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu, 1977, page 3382b
- Dankoff, Robert (1995) Armenian Loanwords in Turkish (Turcologica; 21), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, § 41, page 24
- Bläsing, Uwe (1992) Armenisches Lehngut im Türkeitürkischen am Beispiel von Hemşin (Dutch Studies in Armenian Language and Literature; 2) (in German), Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, § 101, pages 64–65
Armenian
spanakh սպանախ, but we also have to contend with balax բալախ < Mid. Arm. balax բալախ < Old Arm. balax բալախ (common glasswort [Salicornia europaea]), which we have cited from Wiktionary several times above, without any indication of where it comes from. Surely, though, it must be cognate with Hindi पालक (pālak) < Sanskrit पालक्या (pālakyā). So how / when did it pass between Sanskrit and Armenian?
Japanese
Nathan Hopson:
ホウレンソウ（菠薐草）の由来は、中国の唐代に「頗稜（ホリン）国」（現在のネパール）から伝えられたことによる[6]。後に改字して「菠薐（ホリン）」となり、日本では転訛して「ホウレン」となった[7][8]。「ホウレン」の語源は、「菠薐」の唐音とされ[6]、「法蓮草」は当て字とされる。
Compare modern Nepali पालुङ्गो (pāluṅgo, “spinach”), Assamese পালেং (paleṅ), Bengali পালং (paloṅ, “spinach (Spinacia oleracea)”). Possibly the source of 菠菜 (bōcài).
The following two Chinese blogs provide much interesting information and food for thought.
He was preceded in some of his ideas by Susan Plant Kingdom Blogspot (2/4/16), such as that 菠薐 was fancifully transcribed in Teochew / Chaozhou and other Southern Min topolects as bue-lóng 飛龍 ("flying dragon").
Korean
From Bob Ramsey:
sigeumchi 시금치
Korean word for 'spinach': it's 시금치. However, I confess I hadn't really thought about what the origin of the word was, so I immediately went to some reliable Korean lexical sources, and they all repeat what you'll find in a Wikipedia search, namely, that the word was borrowed from Chinese 赤根菜 'red-root vegetable', adding that it's probably borrowed from the Early Mandarin form of the word. It seems it was first attested in Korea in a 1517 Middle Korean text, where the form was written sikunchoy (transcribed in Martin's Yale Romanization).
There are still a lot of loose ends / fibers, so we may have to come back for a second / third helping later on. For now, though:
Selected readings
- "Spinach: Mongolian rhapsody" (7/10/25)
- "Spinach: Indian interlude" (7/10/25)
- "Spinach: the Persian vegetable" (1/19/21)
- "Spiny spinach" (7/9/25)
[Thanks to Bob Ramsey
Victor Mair said,
July 15, 2025 @ 5:27 am
China produces around 90-93% of the world's spinach (31 million tons in 2022). The proportion and the amount continue to increase.
Chris Button said,
July 15, 2025 @ 3:42 pm
Interesting. I wonder what the origin of that name is?
Chris Button said,
July 15, 2025 @ 3:58 pm
But isn't 頗稜 just 菠薐 as discussed in an earlier spinach thread?
So either Nepal is "Spinach country", or something is off here (which might be me)
Chris Button said,
July 15, 2025 @ 8:53 pm
The assignation of the reading of 菠薐 to the Tang dynasty is at least correct since the reading "Horin" is a Tō-on 唐音 "Tang sound" rather than go-on or kan-on. But why Nepal?
Hiroshi Kumamoto said,
July 15, 2025 @ 11:21 pm
From Robert N. Spengler III, Fruit from the Sands. The Silk Road Origins of the Foods We Eat, U of California Press 2019, 234-35:
Although it was probably far less prominent in antiquity than mallow, spinach (Spinacia oleracea) may have moved along the southern routes of the Silk Road. Its origins are still debated, but it likely hails from somewhere in southwest Asia. The founding scholars of plant cultivation, Alphonse de Candolle and Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov, placed the crop’s origins in “Persia” and southern Central Asia, respectively. ……..
Other historians have placed the plant’s origins in southwest Asia around the sixth century AD. In China, spinach was known as pocai, or Persian 235 Leafy Vegetables, Roots, and Stems greens (derived from Posi, the term for people from southwest Asia or Persia) …….
The crop may have spread along the southern foothills of the Himalaya and reached Nepal before making its way to the Tang dynastic center at Chang’an. …..
(And no source explains how spinach became the source of the cartoon character Popeye’s superhuman strength in twentieth-century America!)
Rodger C said,
July 16, 2025 @ 9:45 am
(And no source explains how spinach became the source of the cartoon character Popeye’s superhuman strength in twentieth-century America!)
It's a joke on the early/middle 20th-century belief that spinach is a superfood. Turns out, I believe, that the FDA somehow got its iron content wrong by a factor of 10.
katarina said,
July 16, 2025 @ 8:10 pm
Re Popeye deriving his strength from spinach.
Even as a child (in a Chinese family) I knew that when convalescing we were always given spinach and pork-liver soup. It was supposed to be very BU 補 "healing". Spinach and pork-liver soup for convalescents was very Chinese. Later as a Western-educated adult I learned that spinach was very fortifying and liver was also very fortifying. Once, in college, I was tested as anemic. I then ate beef liver every day for a week, and the next week I tested to be normal and non-anemic. (That was decades ago when we didn't think of liver as containing toxic chemicals.)
I'm writing this because I wonder if the spinach and pork-liver soup combination always given to convalescents in China was originally part of Chinese medicine or if the knowledge of spinach and liver as being particularly fortifying and healing came from the West. Do any readers here know?
A Good Dictionary – Aneesh Sathe said,
July 17, 2025 @ 1:35 am
[…] site: Language Log. They get really deep into language. I mean how much can you write about Spinach, apparently a […]
Victor Mair said,
July 17, 2025 @ 5:50 am
@katrina
That would make spinach and pork-liver soup the Chinese equivalent of Jewish mother's chicken soup, concerning which AIO explains:
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Jewish chicken soup, often called "Jewish penicillin," is a comforting and nourishing dish deeply ingrained in Jewish culture and tradition. It's particularly associated with Jewish mothers and their nurturing role in the family. The origins of chicken soup in Jewish culture are linked to the Sabbath and are likely to be either Spanish or Portuguese, having been brought to Greece by Sephardi Jews. It was considered a rich and hearty meal, particularly important on Erev Yom Kippur, the evening before the Yom Kippur fast.
=====
As is its ever exuberant wont, AIO then goes on to describe in extenso the core components of traditional Jewish chicken soup, preparation tips, serving suggestions, and, if you so wish, it invites you to "Dive deeper in AI Mode".
Scott P. said,
July 17, 2025 @ 8:27 am
Is there something about Jewish chicken soup that makes it recognizably "Jewish"? Why not just say that chicken soup is a nourishing dish deeply ingrained in European and American traditions?
Victor Mair said,
July 17, 2025 @ 9:41 am
From Gene Anderson:
I don't know if the combination was specially featured, but pork liver certainly was. The symptoms of anemia (pallor, weakness, etc.) were well known, and pork liver as a heating and bu thing was well known as a cure. Spinach not so much, but again some value known, though it would usually be regarded as cooling (being a green veg). I never saw them used together–pork liver was often used with other iron-rich meats, plus ginger, jiu, soy sauce, etc.
Victor Mair said,
July 17, 2025 @ 10:23 am
To fully understand Gene Anderson's erudite comment, you need to familiarize yourself with the concepts of "hot / heating" and "cold / cooling" in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). See "The Energy of Foods in Chinese Medicine", College of Naturopathic Medicine.
Also bǔ 補, mentioned as "healing" by katrina above, which has a multitude of definitions, only a few of which I'll mention here: "tonic; supplement; replenish; nourish; make up; benefit; tonify".
Wiktionary
Victor Mair said,
July 17, 2025 @ 10:29 am
@Scott P.
It wasn't my idea to characterize chicken soup as "Jewish". Everywhere I go around the world, I hear it called that. Maybe it has something to do with the way it is dispensed.
Yves Rehbein said,
July 17, 2025 @ 11:26 am
@Scott P. I guess it's probably Ashkenazi and derived from Slavic, from Proto-Indo-European *yéwHs "soup, broth". A dental seems to be attested for Proto-Celtic *yutos "porridge". Ibero-Romance descent is missing. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/yéwHs I am not sure if internal derivation would be informative and I am not in the mood to attempt Semitic comparisons. I barely recall Akkadian šūmu "garlic", which happens to come within an inch of Dhem. Ha!
Yves Rehbein said,
July 17, 2025 @ 11:27 am
Correction: Shem. Ha!
katarina said,
July 17, 2025 @ 2:27 pm
Thing is, the Western (Jewish or European) chicken soup remedy seems to emphasize the soup rather than the chicken — "take lots of liquids such as chicken soup". Chicken soup can be seen ( as in some canned or boxed chicken soup) without the chicken (or vegetables).
There is no such emphasis with the Chinese spinach and pork-liver soup for convalescents. The soup never (as far as I know) appeared without the sp. and pork-liver. As a convalescent I was always conscious that I was consuming spinach and slices of pork-liver and never thought much about the soup which I drank.
By the way, when I was growing up in China and sinophone
cities in the Far East (now East Asia), pork liver was a regular part of our diet. Once or twice a week at home we had slices of pork liver stirred fried with some vegetable (snow peas, etc.) with ginger, garlic, onion, and soy sauce, as Gene Anderson notes.
I never saw beef liver then, but when I came to the U.S. I did
like the beef-liver fried with onions that was a regular feature in
everyday American restaurants. What a pity it appears to have disappeared (though I was delightfully surprised that it did appear on the menu in a small rural town in Michigan when I was there recently–beef liver fried with onions, which I promptly ordered).
David Marjanović said,
July 18, 2025 @ 9:31 am
Armenian does tend to have these effects. :-)
Victor Mair said,
July 22, 2025 @ 11:43 am
From Zihan Guo:
In classical Chinese medical theory (mainly Huangdi neijing 黃帝內經), the liver corresponds to the eyes (trans. Unschuld and Tessenow, 2011, pp. 91). So pig liver was often recommended to treat eye diseases. It was also recorded to treat diarrhea, li 痢. Sun Simiao 孫思邈 (7th c.) had recipes of pig liver pellet 豬肝丸, made from grounded pig liver mixed with other medicinal substances. Later in 10th-11th c., there were imperial recipes of pig liver soup 豬肝羹 (you will have a better translation for geng), where pig liver was to be cooked with some grain and seasoned, but not with any vegetables.
In contrast, spinach was recognized as facilitating bowel movement and suitable with meat (but not seafood) from 8th c. Being cold 冷 by nature, it balances heat. I have not seen it prescribed along with pig liver or any other meat in premodern records. The folklore I had heard growing up is that spinach+pig liver can enhance blood 補血 (esp. pig liver), but I doubt this recognition was already part of premodern repertoire. If you google "spinach," "pig liver," and "anemia," terms like oxalic acid, iron deficiency, vitamin C, etc., show up. This might tell you something about where the reputation comes from.
N.B.: I am not sure if you are aware of this, but whenever you speak of "TCM" (traditional Chinese medicine), you are not referring to Chinese medical theory as formulated and transmitted from, say, the Han dynasty. You are gesturing toward the modern, hybrid form of Chinese medicine and Western biomedicine. Be cautious.